Every day I get frantic calls from parents of teenage girls. The moment they enter my consultancy room, the look on their faces tells much more than they would want to reveal. They all come trying to find the answer to the question “Why and How could their darling daughter, transform into this anger filled, foul-mouthed, disrespectful monster?”
Though there are at least 10 different issues which I could talk about, in a nutshell the 3 most prominent issues that give rise to extreme irritability, anger and fights between a teenage daughter and her parents are:
1.Decreasing School Grades – A new trend that is relatively seen especially in Mumbai city, is that girls perform wonderfully till 7th or 8th standard. But they have a slight to marked decrease in their school grades in 9th – 10th. Even a minor 5% decrease is extremely concerning for most parents. A 10-15% drop is devastatingly alarming for most.
2.Relationships – 15 is the new 18. The change in social structure, facilitated by the increased information inputs through internet, t.v. and radio... pushes many a girls to start fantasising and feeling the need to “Fall in Love” from as early as 12yrs of age. It’s increasingly common to see girls getting into “relationships” by 14-15. As most girls understand these to be actions that will not be appreciated by their parents, they tend to keep it a secret. Unfortunately the lack of knowledge, the happiness of being loved and the social pressure from their friends are all responsible for the alarming increase in untoward consequences like teenage pregnancy, teenage rape or sexual abuse and teenage exploitation.
3.Clothes – with decreasing neck lines and decreasing short sizes, the current fashion sense of teenage girls is giving a lot of heart pain to many parents. Coming from a generation where skirts and shorts leaped till knee length if not more, and the dresses covered most of the body except probably arms... Accepting this new look and fashion is extremely difficult for most parents. It becomes even tougher, when they realise how young guys are looking with lustful eyes towards their daughters. Naturally giving rise to major tensions at home.
Dr.Hemant Mittal (MBBS, PGDPM, MD(www.mindmantra.in))
Neuro-Behavioural Consultant, Motivational Speaker and Wellness Expert
email – eksoch@gmail.com
